A team of five Rutgers Business School students took second place in the school's annual biopharmaceutical case competition, which marked its fourth year with an unprecedented number of entries from a prestigious collection of schools.

Twenty-five teams submitted applications to participate in the Nov. 20 competition, which was capped at 10 spots. The teams, chosen by company sponsors, came from Yale, MIT, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, the University of California, Los Angeles, and Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

Four students from Carey Business School captured the $6,000 first prize and team member Brent Schneider, a second year MBA student, also won the inaugural best presenter award.

"It was a good experience," Schneider said. "Rutgers is known for its pharmaceutical management program. That was part of the draw. There were some good schools and some good talent."

As the second-place winners, the Rutgers team - Bishnupriya Kar, Irene Mac, James Ma, Aneesh Vaze and Kinshuk Saxena - won $3,000. Yale School of Management's team received $1,500 for third place, and Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business won honorable mention.

The level of interest in the Rutgers biopharmaceutical case competition and the quality of teams that want to participate reflects the pharmaceutical management program's success in creating an event that stands out in the national circuit of case competitions.

Rutgers Business School recently played host to 60 colleges and universities from across the country in its first collaboration with the Big Ten's Committee on Institutional Cooperation.

Martin Markowitz, Rutgers Business School's senior associate dean, organized the conference as a way for educators and business executives to share ideas on how to create curriculum that better prepares undergraduates for a changing business world